1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic filing apparatus, and more particularly, to an electronic filing apparatus for storing a large amount of image information of documents and providing the same by request.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, major part of the information generated or gathered in an office is printed on paper and becomes documents. The information is managed by filing the documents. However, recent progress in electronic recording techniques such as optical discs has made it easy to electronically store various types of information.
One example of such device is an electronic filing apparatus. The electronic filing apparatus includes a scanner as reading means. The scanner optically reads image of documents. The image read by the scanner is stored on a magnetic medium such as an optical disc. The electronic filing apparatus makes it possible to retrieve desired information by means of a predetermined outputting means at any time by searching the recording medium.
However, a conventional electronic filing apparatus has the following problems. For example, in case a user needs registered data when he is outside of his office, the user should carry out the following procedures. First, the user calls an operator on the telephone. The user explains to the operator conditions of searching the required data or the like information. The operator searches a storage device of the electronic filing apparatus based on specified conditions. The user receives the result of the search in the form of facsimile transmitted by the operator.
Conventionally, in using an electronic filing apparatus in a distant place, it is necessary to have an operator at the device, as described above. Besides, it is also necessary to orally give the operator the information of the required data. However, such procedure is difficult to follow and occasionally it is carried out incorrectly. Therefore, the electronic filing apparatus can not be used efficiently.
In addition, a conventional electronic filing apparatus has such problem as follows. In sending facsimile to a given destination simultaneously with the registration of the data in the electronic filing apparatus, an operator should operate the device as follows. Namely, the operator operates a scanner to read the data and registers the same in the electronic filing apparatus. The operator searches the data which is just registered in the electronic filing apparatus. After the search, the operator transmits the data obtained by the search by means of the facsimile device. Therefore, the search requires a lot of time. In addition, the destination should be entered through a keyboard, which bothers the operator.